Conventional ice making machines are typically employed in commercial settings such as restaurants to make and store large quantities of ice. A typical ice making machine incorporates an ice making module and a containment module. The ice making module typically includes a refrigeration system, an evaporator plate in contact or in proximity to the expansion coils of the refrigeration system, and a water supply positioned to introduce a flow of water over the evaporator plate.
The evaporator plate is typically in a vertical orientation and positioned relative to the expansion coils such that the evaporator plate can be maintained at a below-freezing temperature. The water supply introduces the flow of water over the evaporation plate such that the water flows from a top end of the vertically mounted evaporator plate to a bottom end thereof under gravity. As the water flows over the evaporator plate, it undergoes a state change from liquid to solid to form a sheet of ice of a generally uniform thickness. The evaporator plate can be a simple plate, or include additional features such as grid work to facilitate the formation of a sheet of preformed connected ice cubes.
Once the sheet of ice is fully formed, it is removed from the plate and deposited into a containment bin of the containment module, and the ice-making cycle repeats. Users can access the containment bin and remove ice therefrom. Typically, the bin is positioned below the ice making module described above. The sheet of ice is removed from the plate such that it falls under gravity into the bin. Upon landing in the bin, the sheet of ice is broken into more manageable pieces. In the event that the sheet comprises connected ice cubes, the sheet typically fractures into the individual cubes, or smaller sheets of connected cubes.
The sheet of ice is typically removed from the evaporator plate by bypassing the heat exchanger coils of the refrigeration system, and sending compressed hot refrigerant gas directly through the expansion coils in proximity to the evaporator plate. This operation causes the temperature of the evaporator plate to rise, allowing the sheet of ice to break free from the evaporator plate, and fall into the bin as described above.
Unfortunately, in some instances, the temperature rise of the evaporator plate is not enough to break the sheet of ice free. Such a failure mode can arise when the ambient temperature surrounding the ice making machine is low and/or below freezing. Such a failure mode can also arise when the refrigerant has undergone a large number of cycles, thereby affecting its ability to transfer heat efficiently. The above failure mode can lead to an undesirable accumulation of ice upon the evaporator plate, or worse, overall failure of the ice maker.
As a result, devices have been introduced to ensure that the ice is completely removed from the evaporator plate with each ice-making cycle. One such device is the ice pusher. The ice pusher typically incorporates a linear actuation mechanism having a pushrod. The push rod is situated to pass through an aperture of the evaporator plate, and contact the sheet of ice to force it free from the evaporator plate.
As the evaporator plate heat cycle progresses, the linear actuation mechanism forces the pushrod through the aperture and against the ice to free it as described above. Contemporary ice pusher mechanisms can be designed as a fail-safe device, wherein the same is only employed when the evaporator plate heat cycle fails to free the ice from the evaporator plate, or these mechanisms can be designed to assist each cycle of ice removal so as to decrease the energy demand of the evaporator plate heat cycle.
Unfortunately, the contemporary ice pusher assembly typically incorporates a linear actuation mechanism in the form of a solenoid having a large coil and pushrod assembly. These components are relatively high weight components, and the overall mechanism has a relatively high energy demand. As the appliance industry continues to move in the trend of low weight, low energy consumption, high efficiency appliances, improvements are needed in the design of ice pusher devices to meet this trend. More specifically, there is a need in the art for a low weight, low energy consumption, compact ice pusher.
The invention provides such an ice pusher. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.